Page 74 of The Boy I Once Loved

“Depends on what you’re thinking. If it involves anime cartoons, then I’m out.”

Dylan pouts. “How can you be my friend and not love Japanese anime? But no, it’s not. I am thinking we could try that new crazy golf place at the retail park?”

I bob my head. I’d seen adverts for the new golf place, and it looked quite good. “I’ll only go if you promise not to sulk when I beat you.”

He scoffs, “Yeah, not likely.”

Leaning back against my locker, I arch a brow. “Oh, really? Want to make a bet?”

“Oh, El, when will you learn not to bet against me,” Dylan says with a chuckle.

"Who's betting against Dylan?" Connor appears behind him and he ruffles his hair. Dylan turns around and the two start wrestling each other, laughing.

“Dylan and I are going to that new crazy golf place and he thinks he can beat me,” I explain to Connor.

Connor holds his hands up. "Not getting involved in this one, so don't ask me who I think will win." Aria comes up beside him and he drops a quick kiss on her lips. "Hey, you. Want to go play crazy golf tonight with these fools?"

Aria smiles, looking from Dylan to me. “Erm, we have plans tonight, remember?”

Connor scrunches up his brow. “No, we don’t.”

“Yes, we do, remember?” She looks at him with wide eyes.

“Oh. Oh, yeah. The thing,” he replies, nodding his head. “Sorry guys, we have a thing.” He slings his arm around Aria’s shoulder. “Have a good night though.”

“Well, that was weird,” I say with a shake of my head as we watch them head for the exit.

Dylan smiles with a shrug of his shoulders. “You know Connor, brain like a sieve. So, I’ll pick you up at six?”

“I’ll be ready with my golfing awesomeness to take you down,” I say with a wide grin.

Dylan rolls his eyes as he steps up alongside me, and we head for the exit. “Yeah, yeah, whatever.”

When I hear Dylan honk his horn outside the house at dead on six, my stomach erupts in nervous butterflies. I check my reflection in the mirror before I head downstairs and out the door. As I jog down the drive, he opens his window and leans out. He’s wearing shades that cover up those beautiful eyes, and my heart flips in my chest at how god-damn hot he looks.

“Ready for me to wipe the floor with you, Ella umbrella?” He teases me with a wink.

I stick out my tongue to him as I walk around the front of his car. “Hardy-har. You’re so deluded.”

I sit in the car and buckle in, and he turns up the radio. His fingers tap the steering wheel to the beat of the song. “So, you and Kyle been on another date yet?”

I frown, looking out of the window. I didn’t want to talk about Kyle with him. “No.”

Dylan nods his head. “Okay. He not texted you or summat?”

My head whips round at his question. "He texted me today actually and asked me if I wanted to do something." Take that, Mr fucking nosey!

Dylan half-smiles, his gaze concentrating on the traffic before us. “You turned him down to go out with me?”

I roll my eyes, trying to play the situation down. “I’d already made plans with you and well, it’s Bro’s before Hoes remember?” I reply, reminding him of the old rule we’d made as kids that it was always mates before dates.

He smiles. “Yeah, I remember El. I was the one who made up that rule after all.”

Growing up, we’d had a mates rules list. Dylan, Connor and I had made it up together and the Bro’s before Hoe’s rule had been number one on the list. Number two had been that you never kiss your friends, and number three had been that we’d always keep each other’s secrets.

“Do you ever wish you could go back?” I ask him. “Back to being a kid, when all you cared about was playing out and having fun? You know before the reality of life hit and you had to deal with people dying or leaving and grown-up shit.”

Dylan nods his head. “All the time. We had some great times. We were invincible back then. Life was simple, easy, and my shitty dad still loved my mum and his kids.” He looks away then as his face betrays his emotions.

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